Entries tagged with: Fashawn

Veteran Def Jux/Rhymesayers rapper Murs and the fresh faced Fashawn teamed up earlier this year for a collaborative album, This Generation, which was produced by Beatnick and K-Salaam and released via Duck Down Music. That's the cover art above and you can stream the entire thing below via spotify. Also below is the video for album single, "Slash Gordan."

Murs and Fashawn are supporting the album with a tour together in 2013, which they're also taking Prof on. That tour hits NYC on February 22 at Knitting Factory. Tickets for that show are on sale now.

Though the most talked about hip hop release of this week is probably Nas'Life Is Good, don't let that overshadow The Alchemist's hip hop song cycle Russian Roulette. The album is thirty tracks long, all of which are under three minutes, and it's scattered with impressive guest spots from Danny Brown, Schoolboy Q, Action Bronson, Guilty Simpson, Fashawn, Meyhem Lauren, Evidence, Roc Marciano, and so many more.

The tracks play into each other like the similarly assembled Beach Boys' Smile, their collaborator Van Dyke Park's Song Cycle, or side B of Abbey Road. Not saying that Russian Roulette is the Beach Boys/Beatles of rap albums, but the idea that its DNA is equally rooted in the odyssey of late '60s psychedelia as it is in golden age boom bap stands. While many guest-filled, producer-penned albums can play like inconsistent mixtapes, this one's more focused than some releases by a single rapper.

Check it out for yourself by streaming Russian Roulette in its entirety over at SPIN. A few of its tracks are also streaming below...

Last year Rock the Bells, the touring hip-hop bonanza, picked up on the voguish festival concept in which an artist performs an old record from beginning to end. It went well, and this year's edition bought in twice as hard. On Saturday on Governors Island, amid other, more ordinary sets, 11 albums were performed in their entirety.

What a gorging! What an obligation! It seemed to weigh on the crowd. It meant that listeners weren't in the here and now, where they might be fratty or selfish or mean spirited. They were deep in the been and gone. They weren't just listening to hits, or to sustained works of art, but to their own pasts. The exercise cooled them out. Saturday's audience was truly racially mixed, with a heavy representation of the 30-to-45 age bracket, grown-up New Yorkers at their casual and courteous best. Many of them high, but still. -[New York Times]

Rock The Bells 2011 took Governors Island by storm on 9/3, and according to reports, ran smoothly and generally on time. There was a barrage of classic LPs (Nas's Illmatic, Mobb Deep's The Infamous, Lauryn Hill's Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu's Baduizm, Black Moon's Enta Da Stage, GZA's Liquid Swords, Cypress Hill's Black Sunday, and others), and performances from some of independent hip hop's great up-and-comers. Though it was clearly elders day, younger crews like Slaughterhouse, Big K.R.I.T., Fashawn, Blu & Exile, Freddie Gibbs, Roc Marciano and others also had the ability to shine on the Paid Dues stage (DOOM, an elder statesman via his days in KMD, was scheduled to play the Paid Dues stage but cancelled his appearance).

In true hip hop fashion, guests abounded. Nas capped the day off with a performance of Illmatic, and he didn't hide the men/women behind the curtain of his first LP; MC Serch, DJ Premier, Pete Rock, Large Professor (of Main Source), Akinyele, Fatal, AZ and many others who either blessed the LP or were instrumental in his come-up all made appearances (yes, they performed the Main Source classic "Live at the BBQ" featuring Nas's first recorded appearance). Pras of The Fugees joined Lauryn Hill for "Ready of Not", Big Noyd joined Mobb Deep for "Give Up the Goods (Just Step)" and other tracks, and Black Moon brought a full band.

Jazzy West Coast rapper Blu plays Public Assembly on September 23 with Ari Why & The Invisible College and Voli. Blu released the Amnesia EP earlier this year, which included the track of the same name. You can download that track above and watch the video below. He is set to release his major label debut LP, NoYork! at some point this year, though no official date has been set yet. The album features production by frequent collaborator Exile, Flying Lotus, Samiyam, Madlib, and Daedelus and guest vocals by J*Davey, Edan, and others. Blu & Exile also play Rock the Bells in NYC this weekend with Fashawn.

Sean Price will also play the Brooklyn venue on September 30 with Natural Elements, Maffew Ragazino, Rasheed Chappell, Johnny 3 Rounds, Stark the Dutch, Zeps, and Ugly Brains. The flier for this show is below. Sean Price will also be at Rock the Bells this weekend as part of the supergroup Random Axe with Black Milk and Guilty Simpson.

In addition to initially announcedRock The Bells lineup (Nas playing Illmatic? Mobb Deep on The Infamous detail? wow), the festival has made some interesting additions like Erykah Badu performing all of Baduism (on select dates), Common performing all of Be (on select dates), Killah Priest performing all of Heavy Mental, Slaughterhouse, and DOOM. More lineup details are below.

The NYC show on 9/3 at Governor's Island gets the Erykah Badu appearance, and tickets are on presale, password is "ILLMATIC". General sale begins Saturday, 6/11, at 10:00 AM.

LA and San Francisco are on sale now, and the only other date, Boston, still doesn't even have a venue announced yet.

The line-up for the ROCK THE BELLS 2011 FESTIVAL SERIES--presented by Boost Mobile in association with GUERILLA UNION and powered by BlackBerry--will feature an array of seminal and up-and-coming hip-hop artists on three stages. Headliners include Ms. Lauryn Hill, Nas,Erykah Baduand Cypress Hill. See the current line-up below and look for more performers to be announced soon.

This year's festival will head to four major North American markets. Kicking off in the Los Angeles-area on August 20 at the San Manuel Amphitheater, ROCK THE BELLS will then head to San Francisco on August 27 at Shoreline Amphitheatre. The festival moves to the east coast for a show in New York on September 3 at Governor's Island (co-promoted with Bowery Presents, Highline, Mad Dog Presents) before wrapping in [a TBA venue in] Boston on September 10.

ROCK THE BELLS featured a number of headliners performing their most influential albums in their entirety for the first time in the history of hip-hop entertainment last summer. The tradition continues this year with Ms. Lauryn Hill performing her landmark, multi-platinum selling, multi-GRAMMY winning album The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill and Nas performing his breakthrough debut album Illmatic with special guests AZ, Pete Rock and DJ Premier. Nas says about performing Illmatic this summer, "For years people have been asking me to do Illmatic in so many ways, from stage plays to movies to books, but the time wasn't right. Where music is going now, the time is right. This will be my biggest production and it only makes sense to do it on the best rap tour which also happens to be a brand I've built and am a partner in. Can't wait to kill it with my comrades AZ, Premo & Pete Rock!"

Full album sets can also be expected from: Cypress Hill performing their 1993 multi-platinum album Black Sunday, featuring modern rock radio mainstay "Insane In The Membrane"; Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star performing their 1998 self-titled debut album;Raekwon & Ghostface teaming up for critically acclaimed, platinum selling Only Built 4 Cuban Linx and more.

"I am excited that this year's Rock The Bells will continue its rich history and tradition by presenting the best and most ambitious festival programming in Hip Hop," says festival co-founder and Guerilla Union head Chang Weisberg. "The bar has been set high and this year's line-up will certainly stake its claim. With ten of the biggest records in the history of the genre and the freshest new talent bubbling from the underground, this summer's Rock The Bells is another dream come true."

ROCK THE BELLS will feature three main stages this year. The two returning stages are the ROCK THE BELLS STAGE and the PAID DUES STAGE, which will feature independent hip-hop acts that performed at the Paid Dues Festival this past April in San Bernardino and new artists-on-the-rise. Paid Dues Festival creator Murs says, "I am excited that I once again have the privilege of hosting the Paid Dues Stage. We will have the honor of showcasing some of the best talent in independent hip hop as part of the worlds largest and longest running hip hop festival... the Paid Dues stage is gonna be the one to watch this year."

The 36 CHAMBERS STAGE is a new addition to the festival and will primarily feature members of the Wu-Tang Clan as well as artists selected by stage curator and Wu-Tang Clan mainstay RZA. A fourth stage that will also be added to most markets is the GRINDTIME NOW STAGE, which will feature battle-style performances.

The Guerilla Union pre-sale for the ROCK THE BELLS 2011 FESTIVAL SERIES will go from June 3 at 10am PST - 10pm PST. The general on-sale starts on June 4.

The lineup was announced last night at a show at House of Blues in LA. Mobb Deep, Souls of Mischief and Cypress Hill all played and pictures to prove it are in this post. More of them below.

The NYC show comes one month after Fashawn makes an appearance at the Nah Right/The Smoking Section Day Party at Rumbler Lounge at Peckerheads in Austin on 3/20 during SXSW. There Fashawn will intersect with Freeway & Jake One (who just played Highline with Brother Ali), J.Cole, Pac Div, Wiz Khalifa, Freddie Gibbs (who is playing the Pitchfork Festival), Pill, Diz Gibran, and many others. Nah Right has more details.

One of those performers, Wiz Khalifa, will headline Irving Plaza on March 26th as part of a larger tour for Deal or No Deal, his album that dropped late last year. Tickets are on sale, full dates are below.